Please can someone advise me how much this collection of books is worth and if these are rare. The copyright is 1959. Are these still worth selling separately or all together?
Thanks!
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You might get around 20 dollars for the set you have here. Right now people are not interested in buying books like this because the information in the books is old and outdated and all the information is now easily found online. Schools and booksellers normally won't deal with this and they are so hard to donate and even give away most of the time.
Thank you for getting back to me I will do a bit more research
Encyclopedia sets still sell but the value will depend on the edition and the overall condition of the set. Many of the sets also offer extra books in addition to the original volume set. Such as an Atlas, year books and dictionary.
Encyclopedia Britannica 1768 - the 1768 is meaningless as it is on all the sets because it is the date of their first publication.
The printing date is what is needed to identify the set.
Your set seems to be the least expensive set published but pictures can be deceiving. The covering type is what determines the initial value and still matters when selling.
When doing research for the 1959 set you'll find several different type covers as well as different additional books.
These set are a devil to ship so many sellers will list them as 'pick up only' and then you have your area to add to value differences as some areas wouldn't pick up a free set on the side of the road while another area may pay, but maybe not very much.
Your 1959 set is the 14th Edition which was published from 1929 - 1973 so it is not a really valuable set but can still be sold but how long will it take? That is anybody's guess.
eBay is a good site to do research because you can find a set you're interested in and place a 'watch' on that listing to see if it sells. eBay also has a link to their sold listings which offers valuable information about what people are willing to pay for a certain item and no other site has this feature.
Here is a link to the 1959 Encyclopedia Britannica listed for sale on eBay. Asking prices are just a price a seller would like to receive for their items but only a sold item has any representation of current value.
You can check out some of the sets similar to yours and place a watch to see if they sell.
www.ebay.com/
Here is a link to the recently sold listings on eBay so check out some of the similar sets and maybe average out a 'value'.
Here are some similar sets that I noticed:
www.ebay.com/
It is difficult to state a value for you but it does appear similar sets are selling for $19 - $100 but some may be according to where you live.
We can look at sold listings for value but we have no way to know how long these sets were listed for sale before they sold - months/years?
You might try listing them on sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, letgo, offerup and list as local pick up only. You can list on several sites at one time and start price at $75 but lower it if no one shows an interest.
Thank you for your reply I will carry out more research and look into this further via eBay
Many thanks
Katie
Cool, but very common. The 1959 printing with blue covers sell for about 1.00 each in most places. There is some demand at this price--it seems artists and crafts people like them to cut up or use for projects--especially junk journal artists, but usually people buy one or two at a time, not the sets.
You may want to see if you can donate them to a craft organization or see if a paper artist's group will take them. For a while our local one was desperate to get them. Not sure what the story is since COVID hit. Not even sure if the place reopened, which is sad.
Anyhow...they are a hard sell...so donating may get you the most bang for the buck with a tax write off if you are in the US and eligible.
Thanks for posting!
You can also place this set on Etsy or see what others are charging. You can link your set in various locations to get SOLD. This set looks to be in good shape , and older is better. Newer books under 100 years are not collectors . Over 100 years is the more desired purchase. Here is a link to what others are doing on Etsy - www.etsy.com/
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